Dissolved gases in magma

Scientists know a lot about lava. Lava is the stuff which erupts onto the surface. Magma remains a bit of a mystery to scientists because it is always found beneath the crust, making it difficult to observe. Drillers accidentally hit a pocket of molten rock underneath a working geothermal energy field in Kilauea, on the Big Island of Hawaii. A lucky break for geologists that could allow them to map the geological plumbing that created everything we know as land. Geologists had expected to hit dark molten basalt, because basalt is abundant on the island. Tests of the glass samples found that the material was dacite, an unusual type of magma that is granitic in nature and contains 67 percent of silica. The samples of the magma were found to be "clear and glassy".

Degassing is the process of removing small suspended gas bubbles and dissolved gas from a liquid. Before applying epoxy and polyurethane compounds, efforts are made to remove any trapped gases. One popular method is by vibration - the mixture is placed on a vibrating table that assists the bubbles in travelling to the surface.

Is it possible that magma is vibrated at such high frequencies that gases are forced to dissolve? As magma rises to the surface as lava, the vibrations could change, allowing gas bubbles to form. At lower vibrations, it would appear that it then becomes possible for hydrogen and oxygen to emerge from the magma as water vapor.

 

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http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/first-contact-with-inner-earth-5385.html

 

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I'm not thoroughly familiar with all of the dissolved gases in magma, but they typically include water vapor, Carbon dioxide, and Sulfur dioxide. Likewise, I'm sure those gases have different solubilities in different types of magma. The lessening of pressure when magma rises to the surface allows for the dissolved gases to be released back as gaseous form [much like releasing the pressure on a soda can when it is opened allows the dissolved Carbon dioxide to form gas bubbles]. The article stated that the magma rose only a few feet before it solidified due to the cold drilling fluids being used. I would expect that that was insufficient of a pressure change for the dissolved gases to revert back to gaseous bubbles, leaving the solidified magma clear and glassy [obsidian like?]. In any event, it looks like PGV is moving forward with plans to develop additional geothermal wells as an answer to the Big Island's energy problem. Ultimately, it should be capable of supplying all of the State's needs, if undersea transmission cables could be adequately developed.

 

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What if the gases in magma are dissolved by ultrasonification within the bowels of the Earth? Anthony Peratt describes magma as a plasma, "a medium containing moving charges". Is it possible that which we think of as ions, or charged particles, are actually 'invisible' dissolved gases?